


I Should Like to Send You A Sunbeam

by I_Am_Not_A_Robot



Category: Lego Ninjago, The LEGO Ninjago Movie (2017)
Genre: Accidental Possession, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cole is a Ghost, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Ghosts, Jay is Afraid Of Ghosts (TM), Loneliness, M/M, Multi, Non-Graphic Violence, Not Beta Read, On Hiatus, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Characters Are Mentioned, Slow Burn, So is Morro, polyninja - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-25 17:54:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19750801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Am_Not_A_Robot/pseuds/I_Am_Not_A_Robot
Summary: There's something up with that abandoned house a few blocks away. Everyone says it's haunted. And the truth? It is. It's very haunted. But... Cole's just really lonely, and he can only wish that someone will wander in someday.Meanwhile, Jay has started seeing some pretty weird things- He's started seeing dead people....And so has Lloyd.-- on hiatus, sorry --





	1. The Living

**Author's Note:**

> apparently i'm in the ninjago fandom now??

Jay was walking home when he saw something... curious.

As far as he knew, normal people don't walk through objects, they don't glow green, and they don't just straight up flicker out of view.

But there, across the street, next to an old house, hovered a very interesting person. He flicked his wavy black hair out of his hair, waved shyly, and floated backwards through the gate surrounding the property. He then promptly faded into invisibility. For a second, he looked down at his fading hands and frowned, but then he was gone before Jay could fully make out the expression.

Jay screamed and ran.

"Kai! Kai oh my god ohmygodohmygod I saw A GHOST-"

"Wait, what?!" Kai, who was lying on the couch, finally sat up. He'd previously been sleeping, but was woken quite quickly when Jay literally kicked open the door and started screaming immediately.

Dropping his backpack full of books on the ground, Jay gasped in a breath and continued his hyper explanation. "I was walking home from the library and I passed this house- it looked pretty old and abandoned- and this- I saw this guy! He was floating, and he was green! Like, glowing! And he PHASED through a fence and DISAPPEARED. Just- poof! Just like that! And he was GONE."

"Woah, woah, slow down." Kai rubbed his eyes tiredly. "You're saying you saw a ghost or something?"

Jay looked taken aback for a moment. "What part of 'I saw a ghost' don't you underst-"

"What's going on?" Zane ran in through the back door, looking worried. "I heard shouting."

Pointing lazily at Jay, Kai yawned and explained, "Jay saw a ghost."

Zane immediately looked over at Jay, raising an eyebrow. "Really? I was under the impression that ghosts don't exist."

Jay faltered for a second. "Y-yeah? Well, say _that_ to the thing I just saw HOVERING in MID-AIR."

"What did it look like?" Zane asked.

"Well... he had black hair, but I..." Jay suddenly became troubled. "I don't remember his face for some reason. Oh my god, that's so weird, I _looked_ him in the _eye_ , why can't I remember his face?!"

"Maybe it's just a ghost thing," Kai joked, falling back onto the couch and closing his eyes. "Alright, thanks for interrupting my sleep, Jay! But I have a sweet date with a dream right now, so if you don't mind, be a little quieter next time when you see a demon or something."

Irritated, Jay scoffed and rolled his eyes. He felt a little embarrassed now, and wanted to press more on the matter but it seemed none of his friends believed him. "Alright, fine! Fine, I'm leaving."

"Bye," Zane called out, sitting on a chair across the couch and pulling out his phone. "See you Monday."

Jay returned the farewell and left, getting in his car and driving back home.

The fact that no one believed him didn't stop Jay from intently watching the house when he passed by it in his car. It also didn't matter that the house wasn't exactly on the way to his _own_ house. No one would have to know that he drove ten minutes out of his way to see the lonely property again.

As soon as he got home, Jay told his parents about it. But just like his friends, they didn't believe him! It was _infuriating_.

At school the next day, Jay couldn't stop thinking about the ghost. He'd mentioned it a couple times, and was currently talking about it again, but every time his friends just brushed him off.

"You guys don't understand! I saw it with my own two eyes. He was _there_ , and then he _wasn't_. You know why? Because he's dead! Why don't you believe me?!"

Kai groaned, looking up to the ceiling as if to blame whatever god he worshiped for his friend's insanity. "Dude, it's because we know that ghosts don't exist! You probably just... I don't know, had dust in your eye or something."

Now that? That was downright insulting. "You think DUST would do that?" Jay's voice was reaching for a higher pitch at this point, climbing the more and more agitated he got. "What do you take me for, some stupid kid who can't tell the difference between _dust_ and some glowing, see-through, INTANGIBLE PERSON WHO _HOVERED_?!"

Some faces turned at that moment, and Kai unconsciously straightened up and fixed his jacket, all while glaring at Jay. "Okay, you can be insane, but please do so _quietly._ People are beginning to _stare_ ," he hissed.

It seemed like a hopeless cause. Jay pretended not to feel hurt, tried to ignore that base feeling of betrayal- his only two friends didn't trust him!- and walked away to his next class. After that, the rest of the day went by normally. He never mentioned the ghost again.

After school he met up with Zane and Kai again, and drove them to their martial arts dojo. The cozy place was actually where the three met. Under the eye of their wise teacher, Sensei Wu, the three had trained with each other, won some local contests, and become best friends.

All negative feelings from before melted away with their sweat and the thrill of training. Jay's mind was, for once, clear. Kai didn't seem mad anymore for him causing a scene, and Zane... well, at least he didn't snicker under his breath when the topic of "The Ghostbusters" came up in conversation with some of the other students.

Jay's mind was pulled from thoughts about upcoming school events as he sat on a bench, cooling off, and heard a friend's voice cut through the regular sounds.

"HA! Beat you, again!" Kai crowed, standing above Zane, both looking positively winded.

But as Kai turned to smile at Jay, Zane kicked his feet out from under him and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the entirety of Kai's weight falling on him. He then leaped to his feet, and crossed his arms. "I don't think so," he laughed.

Kai couldn't help but smile fondly, and accepted Zane's offered hand to be pulled to his feet.

Jay felt a small ache in his heart at the small interaction between his friends, but couldn't place it. Probably just... gladness. He was so glad to have met these two. And he honestly loved them. Platonically, of course. But it was small moments like these that he so strongly felt that warmth bubble up inside him. He couldn't stop himself from smiling softly.

"See where arrogance gets you, Kai?"

Kai jumped and yelped, whipping around in surprise. Behind him stood Sensei Wu, arms folded neatly behind his back.

"Oooh, are you going to grace me with a cool bit of wisdom?" Kai joked as soon as he calmed his racing heart. "I can just feel the teacher-energy waves rolling off you right now." If it were any other teacher, he would never dare to say something like that, but Wu had become something of an uncle-figure to the group. Jokes weren't off limits around him, and they all enjoyed (and probably abused) that privilege.

Sensei Wu chuckled. "Perhaps. It's up to the listener to decide whether or not a sentence spoken has any meaning. For wisdom to have an impact, it must be listened to and recognized."

Zane and Kai listened earnestly. "And...?" Zane prompted. Jay leaned closer, watching like this was the best entertainment he's had all day.

"And I was meaning to tell Kai this-" Wu turned to Kai- "You were being an idiot."

Kai looked stricken. Zane tried not to laugh, covering his mouth and looking absolutely delighted. A high, wheezing " _Pffffft_ -" escaped him. Even Sensei Wu couldn't hold back a smile at Kai's incredulous expression.

Jay stood up then and walked over to Kai, swinging an arm around him. "Don't worry, you did fine in the fight anyway," he chuckled.

"Glad to see that team positivity, Jay. It's about time," Wu praised, and walked away. He then announced it was time for everyone to go home.

The group packed their belongings, mainly water bottles and towels, and changed into cleaner clothes. Jay stopped by the water fountain for a bit. "Go on ahead, I'll be out in a minute," he said, tossing his car keys at Zane, who caught them quickly with his superhuman (in Jay's opinion) reflexes.

The two others nodded and walked out the door to Jay's car. It's not that the other two couldn't drive. It's just that they all wanted an excuse to spend as much time with each other as possible, and Jay just happened to have a cool car. He inherited a lot of money after his real father died (it was a big surprise to everyone that he was adopted, Jay himself included), and he spent some of that fortune on a cool blue car. It was incredibly energy efficient too, generating it's own electricity for power by the wheels turning and some solar panels built into the top. The car needed "refilling" around once every two months. It was incredibly advanced technology, as Jay proclaimed.

Jay looked around the hall as he walked towards the water fountain. Along with all the posters for recent/upcoming events, there were many pictures of previous classes. Sometimes Jay liked to look at all of them, wondering about their lives and what they were doing now. There was always that sense of smallness that followed soon after- his wasn't the only class this dojo had taught. That really should have been obvious, but thinking about the passing of time and all the lives and memories that this building had seen just made him feel an emotion he couldn't quite name.

Shaking himself from those thoughts, Jay refilled his water bottle and got a quick drink. As he was wiping the dripping water off his lips, however, he became aware that he wasn't alone in the hallway.

A strange teen stood at the other end of the hallway, between the dojo's exit and the men's restroom. Along with his sharp eyes, his hair stood out too: all black with a streak of lime green on the right. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, focusing his startling grey-green eyes directly on Jay.

A shiver ran down Jay's back. The hallway had become uncomfortably cold. He tentatively made his way towards the stranger. "Um, hi? Are you... new?"

The stranger shook his head, like it should be obvious. "No, what makes you think that?" His voice held some weird echo behind it, almost like it was traveling across a couple dimensions to get here. That sort of scared Jay, but not as much as what the stranger said next. "I've been a student at this dojo for three years."

If this kid had been a student, Jay would've known. Hell, they would have trained together by now! He looked closer, and saw that he could clearly see the wall directly behind the teen. Jay swallowed thickly, backing off immediately. "You- you're-"

"Who are you talking to?" Another student, Lloyd, interrupted. His eyes scanned the space, blinking in surprise when he saw who Jay was talking to. Or rather, not. The ghost had disappeared!

Jay felt like his heart couldn't possibly beat any faster. "Uh..." How can he possibly respond to Lloyd's question?! No one would believe him!

Lloyd glanced at the main training area quickly, and then grabbed Jay's jacket and pulled him away from the exit. Jay couldn't help but whine quietly, seeing his only escape from the ghost get farther away. "Look, I've been meaning to talk to you. I heard you today in school."

"Huh?" Jay couldn't help but look over Lloyd's shoulder at where the ghost had been standing, but it hadn't returned yet.

"About the um," Lloyd looked around again, "About the ghost. You said you saw a ghost."

 _'You don't know the extent of it,'_ Jay's mental voice snarked sarcastically. Apparently, internal sarcasm was how he dealt with fear. "Y-yeah...?"

"I've- um. I've seen some too."


	2. The Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cole takes a walk, and a few weeks before that, Morro accidentally possesses a certain blond.

_(A day ago)--_

Most of the dust floated gently in the air, and the rest of it covered the empty floors. A boarded up window scattered a weak sunbeam across the room, and Cole sat directly in the little square of light it created on the ground. If he closed his eyes, if he focused on the brightness of light through his eyelids and the calm silence and the weak warmth the beam created, he could almost pretend his heart still beat and his body still existed _outside_ of the ground.

A car passed by outside, an angry _nyoooOOOOooom_ , and he smiled softly, recalling an old memory. It was jumbled- more like a grainy slideshow on a glitchy computer- leaving echoes of a smile, the imprint of someone's hand on his arm, a face he didn't recognize and a voice that called out, "Hey, look! I can drive now!" (but he didn't know whose voice that was).

Nowadays, remembering when he was alive was like trudging through the shallow part of the ocean whilst looking for seashells or pretty rocks. Not only did the sand and water pull at his feet and leave him farther from the dry sand then intended, but every wave buried the seashell or pretty rock deep in the sand. And who wanted to dig through wet, shifting sand just for a seashell? Unless the thing was priceless, no one did (but memories were so, so precious).

Feeling a little sad and nostalgic, Cole got up and stretched- which was more of a habit than anything. His muscles didn't exist, and therefore he never got sore. But god, he liked to pretend.

Cole walked through the wall of the small building he came to call home (he didn't know why it became home. Maybe it always was?), and out into the direct sunlight. In the distance, a bird circled in the sky. It looked like a hawk.

That's pretty neat. How often did those fly around the inner suburbs?

Floating (it was easier than walking) down the street, the ghost took the time to look around him at all the life. He didn't know where he was going, only that something drew him out of the house. Was it boredom? Perhaps, but he had a feeling...

Across the road he saw three people walking together, talking animatedly. A family, it looked like. A mom, a dad, and a daughter, maybe twelve or thirteen. They looked so happy, and Cole wanted to ignore the feeling of jealousy that rose up, bitter, in his throat.

At that moment, his heart hurt more than it ever had in quite awhile. The feeling was so sudden, so dizzying, that he couldn't quite hold himself up anymore, slumping against a fence (and wincing when he just went right through it). Even now, the privilege of hitting the ground and feeling _something_ was taken, as he ended up slightly sinking downwards.

For a split second terror filled him, images of crying, and black clothes, and dirt and darkness and stifling claustrophobia- but he burst upward before he lost sight of the sunlight, hovering seven feet in the air before going down to almost land on the sidewalk, wishing he had a breath to catch.

Across the road, a teenager carrying a backpack jogged a little, glancing around him idly. The teen's reddish brown hair gleamed in the sunlight, looking like fine strands of cinnamon-colored crystal, and Cole blinked.The teen looked over at him, nodding in a "what's up?" sorta way, and Cole noticed that his face was unbelievably freckled, like someone took paint and flicked it generously at him.

Cole wanted to respond, surprised as all hell that someone... oh fricking _heck_ , _SOMEONE COULD SEE HIM!!_ A shy, incredulous smile lifted the corners of his mouth, and he waved right back, nervously tucking some wavy hair out of his eyes (he hadn't been wary of his appearance in so long). He was so lost in his surprise that he didn't notice himself floating backwards, and then he saw the look of confusion and fear on the boy's face, and was embarrassed. Why? Was he embarrassed of being dead? That was reaching a whole new level of pathetic.

Nevertheless, he couldn't help but fade away, wishing that he didn't scare the teen. Maybe if he disappeared the teen would stop being frightened? He glanced at his own hands, which were promptly fading, and frowned sadly, before looking back up at the redheaded stranger.

A pang of hurt shot through him when he saw the teen take off running down the street. He had to follow him! He had to talk to that stranger- that person had _seen_ _him_ , god dang it!

With that thought- that crazy desperation that suddenly took a hold of Cole and made him feel alive- he ran after the teen, determined to talk to someone for the first time in who knew how long.

_(A few weeks ago)--_

Morro wouldn't deny that he was a bit of a jerk sometimes. But really, what else could he do? Scaring people seemed just about the best use he could come up with to being dead- if he didn't count the free pass he got to see all the new movies he wanted, or sneak into all the places he never got to when he was alive. Yeah, he still had that teenage curiosity and rebelliousness, despite the fact that he had died three years ago. Maybe his mind wasn't growing, just like his body. After all, he still mentally felt seventeen.

He didn't like to think about his death very much- but every time he so much as looked in a mirror he was reminded. After all, it's not like he couldn't see the deep stab wound in his side, the blood that he somehow couldn't wash off, nor the bruises on his cracked ribs.

 _'At least it doesn't hurt anymore,'_ he had thought (a few years ago) with a wild sort of hysteria upon waking up in an alleyway and hovering near his own dead body, scared as all shit and trying not to look at the man leaning over his corpse _(You shouldn't have pried, kid. Sorry, you simply knew too much)._ After that Morro remembered simply screaming and crying until he was numb, and spending a lot of time thinking after that, doing nothing but float around and watch life go on.

It was only eight months ago that he realized it was time to move past this, that he had to stop trying to contact someone, and that he was really, truly dead.

But all that changed when he aimlessly floated towards his old dojo one day, a couple weeks ago. He had just scared the heck out of some poor girl (all he did was pick up and flip through a book at the library), and watched with amusement as the kid freaked out. She might've run screaming out of the public library, possibly never to return.

Morro smiled slightly, and walked through the door- not bothering to open it- into the familiar building. He could hear voices deeper inside, but for now he was content to look around at all the pictures in the hallway. There was even one of him (holding up a trophy), and he stared at it, something indescribable bubbling up in his throat, something that stuck and made him swallow uncomfortably. Blinking back what he hoped better not be tears, Morro quickly turned and left the hallway full of memories.

"Go home, everyone," he heard Sensei Wu announce, and sighed. He'd really just come a bit too late, hadn't he? He'd been looking forward to seeing how Sensei Wu's new students were doing. Probably not as good as _he_ had, but then again, Morro had simply been _the best_.

He watched as a stream of students left, but one stayed behind, taking a little longer to gather his stuff. Morro patiently regarded the blond teen- he looked to be around Morro's age (mental- and physical, in a sense. Corpses don't age).

And then the kid looked up, looking at Morro with his pretty emerald eyes, and said, "Hi. Are you new? If so, Sensei Wu is still here, so you can talk to him." He flicked his head backwards, gesturing in the general direction of the dojo's owner, who seemed to be busying himself with a broom.

Shocked into silence, all the ghost could do was stare. And then he grinned. Slowly, his lips parted, and in his excitement and utter bewilderment he noticed his skin start to glow a soft green, and he _knew_ he looked like a madman at this point, but he couldn't stop smiling. In his chest, his dead heart seemed to beat once or twice, a soft stutter, a desperate craving for life. It hurt, but the feeling felt good.

Morro shook his head in response to the blond's question. "I'm not new," he said quietly, stepping towards the living teen. Around them, the room dropped in temperature.

"Um..." the teen faltered, looking the ghost up and down, suddenly looking scared. He backed off, looking behind him to make sure Wu was there still, if he needed to fight or run or _something_.

Morro grabbed the student's wrist, sensing an immediate fleeing, and the blond shivered at his cold touch. "Don't go," Morro pleaded, expression turning troubled, knowing he couldn't let this kid leave- he just _couldn't_.

At least the teen didn't immediately jerk out of his weak grip. "What... what do you want with me?"

Morro didn't know how to respond to that. What _did_ he want? "I- I just want to talk." The student was silent for a second, and then yanked his hand out of Morro's grip, his wrist going straight through the ghost's transparent fingers. 

"I'm just seeing things," he muttered under his breath shakily. "This isn't happening..."

"Oh, it is," Morro said, not able to stop himself from indulging in scaring the kid a little. That always had been his favorite pastime.

When the teen immediately bolted, Morro decided maybe that was an incredibly stupid idea. Not knowing what to do, he just ran after the student, and then accidentally _into_ him.

The first thing he registered was warmth- beautiful, wonderful warmth- and the feeling of blood flowing through living veins, of breath escaping moving lungs, of the buzzing of electricity and life. 

Morro looked down at his hands, and wasn't surprised to not see his own. "Oops," he muttered, and felt the student's indignant shock. He closed his eyes briefly, letting out a slow breath. "This feels amazing," he thought out loud with a voice that wasn't his, and smiled a little again. 

_'Get out,'_ the teen- no, Lloyd Garmadon, that was his name- ordered. 

"Uhhh," Morro stalled. He really didn't want to. But at the same time, this wasn't right. 

And then Lloyd roundhouse kicked Morro's mind out of his own, sending the ghost flying through the door and into the warm air outside, and Lloyd's unbalanced body fell to the ground with a dull thud. 

"Ugh..." Lloyd groaned, and passed out. 

"Lloyd?" Sensei Wu called, running out to see his student/nephew crumpled on the ground. "Lloyd?!" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Morro needs to learn basic etiquette lmao

**Author's Note:**

> so spoopy uwu
> 
> . . .  
> anyway: as always, this isn't beta read or even edited besides a quick read-through so if there are any mistakes, feel free to point them out!


End file.
